Infected Hell Festival 2024 in Wetzlar
27.09.24 Event Werkstatt Wetzlar, Germany
How do you actually organise a festival? At first glance, this seems to be extremely complicated, but in the case of the first Infected Hell Festival, no further conditions were required than the owner of the Eventwerkstatt Wetzlar told Disbelief frontman Jagger: ‘If you manage to get 100 metal freaks into the Eventwerkstatt, I’ll kiss your feet’! Supporting the scene and promoting committed bands was another priority, of course. The meticulous Jagger immediately pulled out all the stops. He found two renowned bands, Undertow (Heidenheim) and Panzerkreuzer (Dresden), who had been playing with him for many years, then Nihil (Wetzlar) and Trial of Death (Siegen) from the local scene were added to the festival line-up. The Eventwerkstatt is a very nice venue in great location and after a lot of advertising, nothing could stop the first Infected Hell Festival.
When the doors opened at 18:00, a few fans had already gathered so that Nihil opened the evening in front of a sizeable audience in an impressive way: The band from Central Hessen offered straight, uncompromising death metal and showed their great potential right from the start. The two guitarists Alex and Uwe were constantly on the move and provided a lot of pressure with their precise playing and driving drums. This was rounded off by the ingenious and deeply penetrating growls of singer Eva, who really doesn’t have to hide behind other front ladies in the death metal genre. Only with her announcements she held back a bit and I wondered about the missing bass player…
After almost 40 minutes, Nihil finished a successful gig, a very good start of the evening! Hats off to the likeable local heroes who you will definitely be hearing from in the future !!!
Trial of Death from Siegen were next to take to the stage and here the fans were treated to a good portion of groovy mid-tempo death metal that invites headbanging and keeps you moving. Their music is very complex and sophisticated and you can tell how much fun they have performing live. Trial of Death are no longer unknown in the underground scene, having supported various genre greats in the past (Disbelief, Fleshcrawl, Toture Killer….). This experience was noticeable from the very first second. Nothing is left to chance in Trial of Death’s playing and the result speaks for itself: first-class, grooving death metal with a high recognition value.
Furthermore, ‘Creating Monstrosities’ is their first full-length album which every death metal fan can buy without hesitation. A very good performance and the band from Siegen got a lot of applause from the Wetzlar audience!
After a short changeover break, it was time for Panzerkreuzer from Dresden, founded in 2012. They released two albums (‘October’ and ‘Aurora’) and a digital EP (‘Pre Production EP 2012’) so far. Singer and bassist Markus gives the songs of Panzerkreuzer a special touch with his ultra-deep growls and skilfully rounds off the very powerful compositions. With his easy-going announcements, he quickly establishes a good basis with the audience. Like the previous bands, their mid-tempo songs have a very good sound and strike a chord with the audience. Panzerkreuzer show all their class and finish a very good gig after around 45 minutes, receiving a well-deserved round of applause.
Undertow have been musically active for 31 (!!) years and singer and band leader Joschi Baschin knows like no other how to harmonise melancholy and heaviness and then express it in profound songs. And the Heidenheim band always knows how to excite their fans live and set new musical accents with their unmistakable sound. Tonight, the hottest songs from 31 years of band history were unpacked and performed more than convincingly. Joshi Baschin turned out to be a very entertaining and funny frontman alongside Undertow’s melancholic groove – he captivated the fans who gave the band a lot of applause. Undertow surprised the audience with a really successful Mel C. Cover: ‘I turn to you’ was transformed into their very own version, which almost topped the original. In addition to all their independence, Undertow are somehow comparable to Crowbar, which of course earns them even more appeal. Clearly the best performance of the evening so far!
If Disbelief weren’t still to come……
Disbelief opened their set with the powerful ‘Reborn’ from the new album ‘Killing Karma’ and delivered the songs with full force, just as you would expect from them. This was cheerfully received by the audience and from the first note, frontman Jagger in particular proved how much he embodies Disbelief and the fervour with which he performs the songs. The fact that Disbelief’s personnel carousel was still spinning a few months ago is not even remotely noticeable (and that Ex-Warpath guitarist Denis Wolter skilfully substituted for Sebastian Schilling who was on holiday). Instead, the guys performed tightly and uncompromisingly and were well-rehearsed beyond all measure. Naturally, they focused mainly on material from the new album ‘Killing Karma’, but the setlist was nevertheless peppered with really brilliant highlights from the Disbelief discography. Undertow’s Joshi Baschin came on stage for ‘Flash Of Inspiration’ and performed the song together with Jagger over the same microphone – simply brilliant!
Disbelief performed tightly and blasted songs like ‘Navigator’ or ‘The Ground Collapses’ with a brilliant sound into the crowd. Simply impressive and everyone at the venue was really excited. Jagger and his guys ended a really great performance with ‘Rewind It All’ and received well-deserved applause from the audience.
Setlist Disbelief:
Reborn
Killing Karma
The waiting
Sick
The scream that slowly disappeared
Navigator
Flash Of Inspiration
The symbol of death
Scaring threat
A leap in the dark
The ground collapses
Inhuman whore
Rewind it all
Conclusion: The first Infected Hell Festival was a total success. From the organisation to the execution to the actual event, everything went well and it remains to be hoped for the regional scene and the metal community, that this festival can establish itself in the awesome location of Eventwerkstatt. Next time there may well be a few more fans. But the first time is difficult, as we all know, and it seems that things are moving in the right direction! Thanks to the bands and to everyone involved – Infected Hell to be continued!
Therefore, keep metal alive and support the undergound!
Text & Photos: Hanzi Herrmann